Technical Field
This invention is generally related to novel hydrocarbon processes and systems for the conversion of methane into various higher hydrocarbons.
Description of the Related Art
The chemicals and fuels industry has evolved and developed over time based upon the relative abundance and highly cost effective production and refining of crude oil. In particular, inexpensive crude oil and historically proven refining technologies have produced large numbers of high value chemicals and chemical precursors that are used in virtually every aspect of human society, from building materials, consumer products, automobiles, packaging, sheeting, fabrics, etc. Likewise, crude oil and its refined products are used extensively as fuels and fuel blendstocks for driving cars, trains, boats and airplanes, etc. Despite the historical economics of crude oil refining, geo-political and geo-economic forces have tended to impact the availability and cost of crude oil. In addition, the expense of recovering oil and its relative decrease in abundance has increased its cost over time.
Natural gas, on the other hand, is generally relatively abundant, and particularly abundant in relatively stable regions, e.g., North America, Eastern Europe and China. However, natural gas suffers from difficulties associated with moving high volumes of gas across vast expanses, requiring substantial infrastructure costs, e.g., to build and manage complex pipelines. Likewise, to date, technologies for the production of the aforementioned chemicals and fuels from natural gas have not proven to be economical under normal market conditions. It is therefore desirable to provide processes and systems that can start with natural gas, and particularly methane in natural gas, for the production of higher hydrocarbon materials, and particularly easily transportable liquid compositions, for use as chemicals, chemical precursors, liquid fuels and fuel blendstocks, and the like. The present invention meets these and other related needs.